The following applies to apple's "US patent 7,743,336: Widget security" AND any claims over WARP. Please take a close look as it does very "WARPish" things.
2004. Macromedia Central 1.5 Release Notes:
http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/central/1_5/releasenotes.html#new
[[
Exact Domain Security
Central 1.5, like Flash Player 7, uses exact domains when determining security requirements. This is a change from Central 1.0, which treated both "foo.yourdomain.com" and "bar.yourdomain.com" as being "yourdomain.com". Additionally, Central places new security restrictions on accessing HTTPS content from an HTTP-delivered SWF. [See also Flash Player security features (http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/flash/articles/fplayer_security.html)].
Security Sandbox - If either of two running SWFs in Central are Flash Player 7 content, they can only access each other if their domains are exactly the same.
Data Loading - Any SWF loading data from a remote server must be in the exact same domain as that server. If not, Central will present the cross-domain security dialog box requesting the user's permission to access the data. This is modeled on the functionality of Flash Player 7, except that Flash Player 7 forbids this behavior entirely, rather than asking permission. To avoid this dialog box, you can create policy files on the server that grant permission to Central 1.5 and Flash Player 7. [See About allowing cross-domain data loading (http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/flash/articles/fplayer_security_03.html#secresdataload)].
]]
Flash 7 (2004): http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/7/releasenotes.html
"Flash Player 7.0.14.0 also introduces an enhanced security policy."
Exact Domain Matching
This feature allows cross-movie scripting only between movies that originated from the exact same domain. Any other cross-movie scripting will only work after calling Policy Files (System.security.allowDomain) to permit access.
The changes in the Flash Player 7 security model can occasionally cause undesirable behavior in pre-existing content. Additional information can be located at the Flash PlayerSupport (http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer) site or at this DevNet article (http://www.adobe.com/go/flashplayer_7_security).
Cross-Domain Policy Files
Policy files are a feature that allows Flash Player to load data directly from any specified trusted domains and URLs.
The changes in the Flash Player 7 security model can occasionally cause undesirable behavior in pre-existing content. Additional information can be located at the Flash PlayerSupport (http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer) site or at this DevNet article (http://www.adobe.com/go/flashplayer_7_security).
HTTP access to HTTPS movies
This feature prevents cross-movie scripting when the calling movie is hosted on a non-HTTPS server and the movie being called is hosted on an HTTPS server. If you can't host all movies on an HTTPS server, which is the recommended solution, you can permit this kind of cross-movie scripting by calling System.security.allowInsecureDomain to permit access.
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See also (2004): http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/fplayer_security.html
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Proof that in 2005 Macromedia Central was seen as a widget engine by people:
"Your correspondent had an epiphany sitting at Macromedia Max in 2003 when he saw a demo of Macromedia Central: dashboard, widget and gadget applications are useless 99% of the time to 99% of users." http://www.missingfeatures.com/2007/08/20/99-of-widgets-are-useless-to-99-of-users/
Who’s afraid of Macromedia Central?
"I’ve been playing around quite a bit lately with Central. You know, that obscure Macromedia Widget app that it seems never really caught on? I’m not sure why people have been stand-offish about it, though. I mean, to create an uber-simple Central app and pod, I added a whole whopping 1 line of code to an existing database driven Flash app! 1 LINE OF CODE!!!
Granted, that’s a bit of an understatement as to how easy it really is to create these widgets. But it really isn’t that difficult. Creating something that has some intrinsic value, on the other hand, is the tricky part. I ran across this app by Smashing Ideas the other day. It’s nice. they made it for USA Today, and it is quite well done."
(http://floggingenglish.com/2005/09/29/whos-afraid-of-macromedia-central/)
"I beta tested Central back before it's final release (no I'm no one special, it was a public beta), it was a pretty nifty program with a lot of potential. I suppose essentially it's just a more compact version of widgets like in Macs Dashboard in their OS.
Central is often compared with Apple Dashboard. Yet Central is a very different animal, with a different purpose, and it has the potential to be so much more than just widgets."
http://www.ozzu.com/flash-forum/anyone-ever-use-macromedia-central-t48610.html
Creating A Desktop Widget In Flash?
"Hi all - I was asked to build an app that would allow a user to have a small “widget” or window always on their desktop (similar to Macromedia Central’s window pane that always opens on startup), so that, based on a particular subject they subscribe to, they would be notified of a new webcast available to view, and could click on a link available in this “widget” and view the video feed."
http://www.ultrashock.com/forum/viewthread/71225/
Macromedia Central 1.5 (July 5, 2006)
"What is Macromedia Central? Well, like its name implies, it's a desktop application (or "widget" to those in the know) that lets you centralize and synchronize content outside of the browser for cross-platform data sharing."
http://animation.about.com/b/2006/07/05/macromedia-central-15.htm
Furthermore, On Wikipedia, Adobe Air (which is what Macromedia Central morphed into), is listed as a widget engine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_widget_engines